Two Bulgarian films at the 18th Millennium Documentary Film Festival in Brussels

"The March of the Amazons" by director Borislav Kolev and "In Hell with Ivo" by Kristina Nikolova are included in the program of the 18th edition of the Millennium International Documentary Film Festival, which begins on March 26 in Brussels and will last until April 3. Every year, the festival presents films by independent artists from all over the world. The artistic director of the film forum is Zlatina Rousseva, who has been living and working in the Belgian capital for four decades.

Rousseva left Bulgaria in 1986. The reason is that the regime stopped her films and she decided to flee with her husband. They settled in Belgium, where Zlatina Rousseva continues to make films. Today she is better known as a director abroad than in Bulgaria.

In Brussels, Zlatina Rousseva and her husband Lyubomir Georgiev created a production studio and began collaborating with Doctors Without Borders. They filmed wars, natural disasters, humanitarian catastrophes, but in the tragedies they looked for the good news. In 2009, they created the Millennium International Documentary Film Festival, which is held annually in the Belgian capital. It is dedicated to the main UN Millennium Goals - eradicating poverty, promoting social change and ensuring environmentally sustainable development in the world.

Zlatina Rousseva is the artistic director of the Millennium Festival. Its 18th edition features documentary films from all over the world.

"There are many films from European countries, but at the same time we are trying to show films that come from countries that are completely unknown here. We have films from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, South America. All continents are represented at the festival," director Zlatina Rousseva says

The topics of the documentaries that will be shown in this year's edition of the Millennium Festival range from problems related to environmental protection to the conflict in the Middle East.

Traditionally, Bulgarian documentaries also participate in each edition of the festival. This year, two are included in the program. "We are Bulgarians and we can never do without Bulgarian participation," Rousseva says.

"The March of the Amazons", which is included in the program of the festival, tells the story of four extraordinary women who achieve incredible success in sports such as boxing, wrestling and football. The film delicately delves into their stories and is "a dramatic story about the path to triumph and overcoming life's difficulties, social prejudices, one's own fears and demons."

The other Bulgarian documentary in the festival program – "In Hell with Ivo" – tells the story of queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev, who transforms personal and social difficulties into provocative performances, boldly exploring sexuality, identity, faith and activism in a liberating celebration of queer visibility. Ivo Dimchev will also join the festival with a concert.

Zlatina Rousseva says that she does not have the opportunity to closely monitor the development of Bulgarian documentary film making. The director says that she spends about three months in her homeland every year.

"I don't know about others, but my husband and I have never severed ties with Bulgaria. We have not allowed ourselves to speak against the country, because this is our homeland."

Sources of authentic information in the modern world are becoming fewer and fewer, which makes the role of documentary cinema increasingly important, according to the head of the Millennium Festival.

"Maybe it's a joke, but people who watch documentaries do not suffer from ‘burnout’ because this cinema, especially the films we choose, allow a person to open their emotions and feel their inner potential, i.e. they are not bombarded with quick information," Zlatina Rousseva says.